>>11972625Inoki wanted to determine who was the best wrestler in Japan so he held a tourney that includes not only wrestlers from NJPW but from every fed in Japan. He specifically wanted Baba to participate because Inoki has been asking him for a match since their late days in JWA when they were its biggest draws but Baba kept refusing. He instead sent Rusher Kimura from IWA (AJPW had a partnership with them at the time). The tourney had NJPW wrestlers and freelance wrestlers, most notably the Ookami Gundan (Wolfpack), which then inspired the nWo decades later. The Wolfpack is a heel unit, they even interfered in the WWWF Heavyweight Championship between Inoki and Backlund. The unit is headed by Matsuda and its members were Masa Saitou, Ueda Umanosuke, Thunder Sugiyama, Gou Ryuma. So, both Inoki and Matsuda made it to the finals and Inoki knowing that Matsuda's guys will not play it clean, he brought his guys Sakaguchi, Fujinami, Hoshino and Kobayashi to keep an eye on them. As you watched, there was tension between them outside the ring. The match is intense because the title of the best wrestler in Japan is on the line and the fact that Inoki had to overcome a dirty fight. And a fun fact, both Inoki and Matsuda were Rikidozan's students, were trained by Gotch and even formed a tag team but Matsuda found success in the US and stayed there.
